By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 23, 2014//
By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 23, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
Civil
Civil Procedure — diversity jurisdiction — business entities
A Chinese Ltd. is not a corporation for purposes of determining international diversity jurisdiction.
“Given the parties’ agreement that Changzhou Fellowes is closer to a limited liability company than to any other business structure in this nation, it does not have its own citizenship—and it does have the Illinois citizenship of its member Hong Kong Fellowes, which prevents litigation under the diversity jurisdiction. We need not decide today whether to overrule Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church, in which the juridical-entity reasoning was an alternative ground of decision. It should be understood, however, that the case cannot be generalized to entities other than religious bodies organized under the law of Cyprus.”
Vacated and Remanded.
12-3124 Fellowes Inc. v. Changzhou Zinrui Fellowes Office Equipment Co. Ltd.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Guzmán, J., Easterbrook, J.